Sensors may be used in a variety of applications. For example, in electro-mechanical systems, surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices may be used as sensors to measure torque, temperature, pressure, and other parameters. The SAW devices may be wafer level hermetically capped or placed and sealed inside of hermetic discrete packages, and then mounted onto structures in order to sense data of the structure. The SAW devices may be mounted onto structures such as shafts, rods, blades, or alternative structures used in various applications such as aviation, oil and gas, transportation, renewable energy extraction, or the like.
The processes of mounting sensors to structures presently include several issues. One issue present with mounting sensors to certain structures is that many structures are too large to fit into conventional ovens or reflow equipment or may not be able to be transported to a location having conventional ovens or reflow equipment to mount the sensors to the structure. Therefore, many SAW devices are mounted to structures using an adhesive or epoxy material. However, using an epoxy or adhesive to mount a sensor to a structure limits the operating temperature of the system, reduces the sensitivity of the sensor to sense data of the structure, limits the capability of future re-workability of the sensors mounted to the structures, and requires significant time for the epoxy or adhesive to properly cure, which increases associated manufacturing and material costs. It is advantageous to have a more robust mounting method to attach these sensors both in the field and in a production setting.